WEBSTER AT MARSHFIELD.

HE period from 1830 to 1845 is marked by the discussions regarding the tariff, which resulted in nullification in South Carolina by the treaty of Washington which settled important questions between the United States and Great Britain, by severe financial disasters, by successful foreign diplomacy, and by the annexation of Texas, which was to bring about the war with Mexico. It carries us from the opening of the administration

of Jackson to the close of that of Tyler.

The Protective Tariff had before this time caused an antagonism between the Northern and Southern States, but the tariff of 1828 was especially offensive to the South, and Jackson in his first message sug

gested a modification of the duties it levied. A few slight changes were made in the spring of 1830, but the concession did not bring concord. The South attributed to the tariff troubles that resulted from the sale of public lands to emigrants and depreciated the value of estates in the older communities.

At the close of 1829, Senator Samuel A. Foote of Connecticut, brought forward a resolution inquiring into the expediency of suspending for a time the sale of public lands, and it brought up the vexed question of the relative rights of the general government and the States. It was on this occasion that the notable debate occurred between Daniel Webster and Senator Robert Y. Hayne, of South Carolina, in which Hayne declared that the general government, being a creature of the States, the States retained the right to "nullify" any act of Congress that they deemed unconstitutional, and Webster planting himself firmly on the theory that the Constitution was adopted by the people as a whole, acording to its tenor- for it begins with the words, "We, the people of the United States, in order to form a more perfect Union "— argued that the general government is, within its sphere, independent of all local institutions, and that no State has the right to nullifiy any act of Congress. He argued that the United States was a nation, the government of which was the independent offspring of the popular will, "made for the people, made by the people, and answerable to the people."

The close of the first term of Jackson was approaching, and the time for the choice of his successor arrived, in November, 1832. The result of the election was the reëlection of Jackson, who received the votes

SOUTH CAROLINA ACTS.

435

of Maine, New Hampshire, New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Virginia, North Carolina, Georgia, Tennessee, Ohio, Louisiana, Mississippi, Indiana, Illinois, Alabama and Missouri.* Henry Clay received the votes of Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut, Delaware, Maryland and Kentucky. Vermont voted for Mr. Wirt, and South Carolina for John Floyd of Virginia, for President, and Henry Lee of Massachusetts, for Vice-President.

South Carolina under the guidance of John C. Calhoun, now acted upon the principles which, it claimed, were laid down † in the acts of Kentucky and Virginia, passed in 1798, under the direction of Jefferson and Madison, and called a convention, which assembled November 19, 1832, and passed, November 24, an ordinance declaring that the acts of Congress imposing duties on importations, were unauthorized by the Constitution, and therefore "null and void, and no law, nor binding on the State of South Carolina, its officers and citizens," and that the Legislature should adopt measures to arrest the operation of such acts within the State. The people with a manliness that must be admired, staked their all on the support

*The nomination for President and Vice-President were now first made by National Conventions. The Anti-Masons nominated William Wirt and Amos Ellmaker, in September, 1831; in December, the National Republicans nominated Henry Clay and John Sergeant; and in March, 1832, the Democrats nominated Martin Van Buren as VicePresident, Andrew Jackson having been nominated as President in February, 1830, by his friends in the Legislature of New York. Candidates had generally been nominated by Congressional caucuses.

† See page 372.

Writing in 1833, Jackson said: "The tariff was only a pretext [for nullification], and disunion, and a Southern Confederacy the real object. The next pretext will be the negro or slavery question."